It would be the 'rising tide' that lifts all ships. When money flows to the poorer people in a given area, they spend it, creating demand that boosts the economy. Any sort of reparations would not only benefit those who directly receive them, but also everyone else, boosting job growth and local economies the country over. So it's not just moral, it's good financial sense for the 99%.

What I like about this piece, is that it outlines so many typical responses to it, when the article clearly hasn't been read.

The appalling lack of knowledge of the aftermath of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and the development of institutional racism is stunning in scope.

Most people don't bother with any history they're not actually taught in school, and the vast majority of schools simply don't teach the seedy underbelly of American history. Oh sure, you (at least in most places) learn that slavery existed, that we massacred Native Americans here and there, that we threw Japanese American citizens into camps during WW2, but how many students ever are taught about redlining or Levittown?

The national school curricula simply skip over institutional racism, so it's no wonder that so many people are ignorant, or don't even understand notions of privilege.

The RW learned something long ago that the left struggles to this day with. Schools are incredibly important long term, quite possibly THE most important battlegrounds out there. Congress is important now, but getting ACTIVE lefty folks onto school boards now is the key to gaining and holding Congress on down the road. We need to be putting together lessons on issues that are consistently glossed over and ignored, or covered very briefly and immediately forgotten. To tie the world we see around us to those past decades and show kids how we got here. Why we're STILL fighting voter ID, voter caging, and why there are so many legal ways to discriminate.

We get side blinded by ridiculous creationist arguments by the RW, when what needs to be done is treat our schools and our teachers as the precious resources they are, history as one of the valuable resource it is.

Otherwise known as Fox News.

no need if over 30 or 40 years old.. and you didn't live under a rock

Interesting point of view.

It's much, much , much more than what one person could personally experience themselves, even if they didn't live under a rock. It covers decades and offers a wide and comprehensive perspective from multiple viewpoints.

If you are over that age, what didn't YOU know that was so important?

I didn't grow up in Chicago so I didn't know about the housing scam going on there to cheat black home buyers, nor the group that grew out of that to protest it.

Did you read it? Did you know every detail and story in that very long and well researched article?

Of course you didn't so your post is kind of silly, and juvenile.

And being new to the site (judging from you low post numbers), you'll be better off not insulting engaged posters over weighty issues like this.

my guess is that it did not change your opinion on anything

enlightened me and added to my knowledge base on the question of reparations. And judging from many of the other posters, I'm not alone in that regard.

You of course, from the tone of your posts, already knew everything that was in the article, and everything else as well.

I kept thinking about it last night while we were watching "Lincoln."

At one point, Lincoln told Grant he didn't want to punish the south for the obvious treason and attempted armed overthrow of the American government. No "repercussions" amounted to "reparations" for the white leaders of the the rebellion, who, like the 1% today, were doing fine before, during and after the war. Everyone else suffered, but mostly slaves and former slaves, who were tormented and murdered by the unrepentant rebels who, even now, feel the need to fly their flag of hate and oppression.

I Didn't see 'Lincoln'-- I think I'll put it on my 'to watch' list.

and Thaddeus Stevens took a stand on the 13th amendment and what it took to pass it.

It's also a reminder of "how the party of Lincoln" is not even close.

i heard him on wbez. llooong interview.
got one of the great radio stations on the planet here in chi

http://www.wbez.org/programs/afternoon-shift/2014-05-22/afternoon-shift-reparations-c-sections-and-twitch-explained

The essay is an amazing compilation of history that makes me even more frustrated with the state of affairs in the US. Discrimination and hatred of minorities in our country have been present for centuries. Will we ever learn the golden rule?

Like most big lottery winners usually end up worse than before they won it. It should be held in a kind of trust like SS is, or free college or high-tech training or free health care for life, relocation to a better neighborhood paying percent of mortgage etc.

It exposes the racial policies and crimes committed against blacks during reconstruction, the early jim crow era, the seperate-but-equal era and in fairly recent times that were sanctioned, to be frank, by the government through HUD housing policies and non-actions, and even New Deal policies which banned social security for domestic and rural farm workers — black maids and black sharecroppers, etc.

So please read it. No one is talking about any big checks. It does however go into how other countries handled and made reparations to wronged people. For some reason the US won't even entertain anything liike that for blacks but made reparations for Japanese Americans who were interned doing WWII.

Guess the feeling among many whites is blacks couldn't possibly deserve it.

These are the very kinds of people who need to read the article.

A sudden big check in the hands of the poor can do more harm than good. Another reparation idea might be free business subsidies and loans.

From Wikipedia: President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act, which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. government and authorized a payment of $20,000 to each individual camp survivor. The legislation admitted that government actions were based on "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership".[13] The U.S. government eventually disbursed more than $1.6 billion in reparations to 82,219 Japanese Americans who had been interned and their heirs.[12][14]

but I was only able to catch bits and pieces of that. I think the article is to get the discussion going about the possibility of reparations rather than specifics right now which would probabaly freak out a lot of people.

It's heartbreaking, inspiring and one of those articles that really makes you think.

At most he calls for the equivalent of the truth and reconciliation commission they had in South Africa and references John Conyers' bill for a commission to explore the idea of reparations.

So they rarely see the need to read beyond them. Unfortunately, they've realized that most Americans don't look past them either. All they have to do is get a main point across in a headline and they know most people won't look up the details.

Re the schools point made earlier in this thread, Inherit the Wind should be a required watch in today's schools.

I read it and I basically agree that reparations are due but then realize the devil in the details would get out of hand. John Conyers has been trying to get something into Congress about studying it for 25 years now.

There was some attempt at getting reparations regarding the housing, the man started in 1968, much closer to the actual events.

It talks about slavery about as much as about housing. I don't even get this meme. It talks about many other things too.

It is called the Case for Reparations so people are going to debate that subject incident to it.

thought about it, rejected it. It is theft pure and simple. Call me whatever you like, fortunately I stand with most Democratic politicians that will reject this nonsense.

Were not people wronged during slavery, reconstruction, the jim crow era, and the seperate but equal era, and even now?

Were not Japanese Americans wronged by internment during WWll, then given reparations to partially make up for it? Did you think that was wrong?

What about the reparations paid to Israel by Germany in the 50s because of the slave labor camps and the holocaust? Did you reject that as well?

Do you have a problem because reparations might go to black people?

And I think you stand way apart from most progressive people on this issue.

Sure you're on the right site?

The Japanese were only discriminated against during WWII. Before and after the war things were normal.

What you are suggesting is to try and correct institutional racism that has been around since the founding of the nation. You are dealing with a far, FAR more deeper problem that has somewhat become ingrained within our entire American culture. Money doesn't solve racism. Reparations will do absolutely nothing to improve race relations in America.

You got majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. You got the youth up to their ears in debt. 10% of the country can't find adequate employment. And this is the middle class. Yet you want to have conversation about taking money from rich white people and handing it to poor black people because of skin color? Every American who isn't poor and black will be against that idea. The upper class will obviously be against it. The middle class will say, "what about our problems?" And the Hispanics will be against it too.

America is not a communist country. This is a capitalist, constitutional republic. The government cannot wave a hand and transfer vast sums of wealth from one class of people to another.

And I understand this isn't necessarily what the essay was about. But this is the 2-ton elephant in the room that can't be ignored. You can prove racist policies all you want but the minute you suggest reparations and/or redistribution of wealth...it's game over. People would rather the racism continue than give up their wealth. I don't like saying that, but it's the sad reality of the United States of America.

The Japanese American reparations were for "temporary" situations that went on for just a few years, yet they deserved reparations.

But according to your reasoning, something that went on for hundreds of years should just be ignored?

Does even make any since?

I'll put it this way a few years of oppression gets reparations vs hundreds of years gets nothing — does that sound like justice to you?

And it won't break the country. We can come up with TRILLIONS to bail out the banks after the Bush years fiasco but to compensate a whole race of people who were denied pay for hundreds of years — and that's just the slavery part, not the post war reconstruction period of lynchings and stealing of black land, or the jim crow era of lynchings and cheating of sharecroppers, or the housing scams sanction by HUD — no you say, nothing can be done.

But I say again in case it didn't sink in the first reading — TRILLIONS (that's with a "T" not a "B&quot go to white bankers who fucked up and brought the economy to it's knees through their greed, but nothing to at least acknowledge and make partial amends for hundreds of years of racism?

You're okay with that? Reparations for any other group of people but HELL NO to black people?

TRILLIONS to bankers didn't break us, got that?

Like I said...none of the arguments matter. Reparations for blacks will never happen. The majority of the country would rather the racism continue than to give up a share of their wealth for a problem they don't believe they were ever part of. That's the cold reality.

You got a lot of people in this country that are struggling. The middle class is being gutted. Poor whites and poor latinos are struggling too. And you want to put in place a system that would only benefit poor blacks? Not happening....it's never going to happen. Maybe if we ever get a period of prosperity again and the middle class is very strong once again...then maybe we can explore some conversations. But right now in the present political and economic climate...this is a dead end.

Did you personally shell out any of the trillions to the bankers? Get real!

Trillions to bankers and nothing can or should be done to JUST PARTIALLY make up for hundreds of years of racism?

And btw, Latinos have been victimized as well, native Americans too. The country would probably be better off if these wrongs were addressed in some way. It certainly doesn't have to be checks — maybe a fund for small business, college educations, modern schools — those sorts of benefits.

TRILLIONS to bankers just a few years ago. The country won't go broke.

I reject it as nonsense and since it doesn't seem to be a party plank, I am CERTAIN I am on the correct website, are you?

This is Democratic Underground, not Progressive Reparation Underground.

does not belong here.

lead to anything other than a tombstone.

But with this New DU, anything goes.

All that comes out of it is right-wing propaganda.

he'll be allowed back to regale us all some more with unthinking, racially clueless, right wing ass hattery.

I'm sure he Didn't read the article, and he didn't read the article about the article in this OP, that much is clear.

The only words that made it through were "black" and "reparations" then typical freakout

And why should he/she?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024985868#post44

They have been taking a dump all over these threads on Coates article.

And perhaps more comprehension

It talks past slavery, post Jim Crow and goes into racist and predatory lending practices.

Read it for the history.

And you are correct. What about most Black democrats? We do not matter...until election time.

Is where people's brains are stopping.

Thank you WM

Fortunately and unfortunately I think I understand what he is trying to get across to people.
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Fortunate in that I probably am aware of the basic facts he is writing about.
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Fortunate in that I have put them together similarly.
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Reparation, compensation, awareness and history all have a place. Just not as usually understood.
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For his thesis, for his paradigm, they need to be looked in specific ways that are not the normal ways of doing so.
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Unfortunately for me, I have not come to a resolution, a conciliation, of his chosen tenets into more than a tepid solution or no workable solution at all. For me, perhaps I cannot find a reasonable and actionable solution other than a tepid one. His solutions are non-specific in actual tangible actions. He seems to want actions to be done from a viewpoint that does not have specifics in mind, in numbers on a particular problem.
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And unfortunately for me, and perhaps you, I am not that competent a wordsmith to explain it.

The article oft linked here really does a poor job . Just my opinion. If TNC wants to provide basis for a new paradigm for those unaware of his facts, he does a poor job of it.
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he seems to use words like reparation for reasons similar to why people use buzz words in a non- buzz word sense... but one does not find that out until later.

It's says "how to tell if someone hasn't read it" This isn't a debate about reparations, "The case for Reparations" is a lengthy, historical almost philosophical piece about why they might be considered, not nessisarily that they be, or how they would be, and it gives the historically relevant racial context that continues to affect current AA generations.

I don't consider the piece to be particularly lengthy, for what he claimed it was supposed to be about, as he proclaimed on Bill Moyers.
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Those few stories are not substantial enough by themselves to accomplish his goal.
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in his 1000or 2000 words or so he "gives the historically relevant racial context that continues to affect current AA generations" as it relates to his philosophy? ... aw, c'mon

He really is not asking for reparations for slavery in the way others have.
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After all is said and done... he wants redress for how things are now and he wants a change in thinking in how things occur now and in the future.
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he did a little history to get us to now.

perhaps I understand what he is trying to do...perhaps not
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I don't think much of his article as an explanation of what he is trying to do, I think it is a partial basis.
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your comment :
".... is a lengthy historical almost philosophical piece about why they might be considered..." would work better , imo, if you had stated
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....is a lengthy historical ( philosophically orientated ) piece that should be considered as providing some historically relevant racial context that continues to affect current AA generations.

Had you titled this thread:

"How To Tell Who Hasn't Read The New 'Atlantic' Cover Story
by Gene Demby"
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I may have better understood you wrote nothing here, and my response may have been quite different. Without credit to Demby... it looks like you wrote it.
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I was under the impression that what I read in the OP was what YOU had written, with More link being the place where you and others had additional comments.

400,000+ subscribers and dropping - like many publications -
Honestly the best way to tell someone hasn't read the new Atlantic cover story is that they are standing in front of you.
Given the entire country's population the number of people that have read it is statistically, significantly small.